The result is five times the quality of a clear image. Although it is between 1x and 3x, Huawei P30 Pro relies on Huawei's hybrid zoom technology. This is a "super-resolution" algorithm, and Google also uses its lossless scaling version in Pixel 3. Interestingly, between 3 and 5 times, Huawei P30 Pro used the information of the main lens and periscope camera. 5 times zoom captures the details of the center of the frame, and the edge details are filled from the main camera using a hybrid algorithm. This is the so-called "vision fusion".
The hybrid zoom algorithm is also used to expand the zoom of P30 Pro by a factor of 10 without the obvious quality loss usually associated with digital zoom. This is done by shooting data from multiple 5 times periscope cameras. Compared with P30 and P20 Pro, higher definition can be obtained.
Huawei P30' s conventional optical zoom setting is 3 times. The hybrid zoom is used between 1 and 2.9x, and then further expanded to 5x. If you want to achieve 10 times with the conventional P30, then you will not be able to use digital zoom, and the quality will be greatly reduced compared with P30 Pro.
Optical and hybrid zoom examples
Although Huawei's 5x optical zoom technology is really impressive, there is still a balance point. Although "lossless" claims, the quality of hybrid zoom is not as good as that of optical zoom. P30 Pro's set focal length is quite different, which makes it depend on the mixed zoom between 1. 1x and 4.9x.